in front of others, you’re polished and sleek –

you manage to obscure just what hides beneath.

You’ve done it before, the veneer has been fine

and your gift of the gab has played tricks with my mind.

You’ve courted, persuaded, played to my tune,

dazzled and sparkled, my energy’s consumed.

Resistance is futile, you believe in your power

whilst my boat of lost hope is bound to founder

on rocks of persuasion; as politicians stand

I can’t help but wondering – are we all damned?

———-

This week, on dVerse Meeting the Bar, Karin has asked us to write in slant, or near rhyme, which I enjoy both reading, and writing. I’m posting early and linking up to Karin’s post later, as I will be hot-footing it to the polling station to vote in the European elections. As you can see from my poem, I do wonder at the sanity of it all, but better to vote than not at all, that’s not in question. My personal politics, other than ones I have shared before on the future of our planet are not for here, but I imagine you have a fair idea of the sorts of things I really can’t abide.

By the way, the title of my piece, ‘Rotten Borough’, is the name that was used for parliamentary boroughs or constituencies in the UK which had a very small electorate and could be used by a patron to gain undue influence in the House of Commons until the Reform Act of 1832, which disenfranchised them. For example, Old Sarum in Wiltshire had 3 house, 7 voters and 2 Members of Parliament! See Wikipedia for more examples!

Please pop over to dVerse to see how others have risen to the slant rhyme challenge – I will be hooking up and linking up later!

Well, Route du Roi was only for the posh people, and rotten boroughs were essentially ‘owned’ by the landed gentry, so, a little! 🙂
I’m glad you enjoyed it. I had to force myself not to go for proper rhymes at the start!

I remember learning about Rotten Boroughs when I was studying for A’ levels, quite a few moons back. Politics can feel insane but our democratic systems are what we have and should never take for granted. I will only be voting on Sunday but it worries me that the Eurosceptics are the ones who will probably do best in a few countries.

ugh…put it in the politcal framework…and i feel you…to have someone seem all polished and like they actually care…and then as soon as they get what they want they betray you in a heart beat….politicians are def good at that….

Democracy rules, literally, and yet anarchy, totalitarianism, demagoguery, chaos are our alternatives, & politicians, greased by the lobbyist’s cash, turn utopia into dystopia. I watch a lot of CNN in the mornings, & our political crisis of the day, the VA debacle hits me hard, since I worked for the VA for 25 years, & too often witnessed the abuses, the apathy, the bullshit parameters, the bean counters.

Politics is personal. And when it cuts too close to the bone, boy does it hurt. And yet I can’t not vote. As soon as we step out the door, politics is right there. Anyone who says ‘I’m not political’ needs their head examining. I think that the waste and other troubling aspects of the VA issue have often been repeated in other countries. The military will always be abused like that.

First, thanks for taking this in. An unusual direction. I wondered about the rotten borough as I knew the phrase historically so was so curious . You write of disillusionment all too well! But vote! Thanks. K.

The latest news about the elections in the UK is very depressing, so I’m glad you went out to vote. I suspect many didn’t bother and it’s the only the ones with strong (harsh) opinions who make a stand. But at the same time, I can understand your disenchantment with politicians. Funnily enough, at the beginning, I thought this poem was addressed to a silver-tongued, cheating lover.